Edward F. Foulks

Most researchers refer to fits of frenzied kicking and incoherent speech as psychological phenomena. Dr Foulks discovered that what were considered "cultural" causes had important biological dimensions.
Certain people living in a precarious physiological state who are inclined to be anxious, may precipitate a mental disorder which occurs with some frequency among circumpolar peoples, by hyperventilating. This further lowers serum levels of free calcium by raising the pH. The author documents low calcium intake among subjects suffering such attacks, or "going piblokto", and ties this to reduced vitamin D3 during the minimal radiation ultraviolet levels of the winter sufficient to result in cycles of hypocalcemia. 86.
Anxiety is a chief characteristic of all neuroses, but to see it push a person into convulsive helplessness in an unforgiving place -- on the sub-zero snow, or in a kayak -- is a phenomenon worthy of study. While making no attempt to eliminate the "variability", the fact that a symptom may be "overdetermined" with multiple causes, Doctor Foulks made a case for calcium supplementation without claiming it would be the only solution.
In attempting to demonstrate a "synthetic" model of understanding, however, the author dropped the ball of twine he was using to pull it all -- the demographic, the cultural, the physiological, the dietary -- together. Granted, the Alaskan native communities were experiencing rapid changes, with emergent mental health issues. It does little good to defer to "behavior shaped by intrapsychic processes...extending from the history...to the very forces of the cosmos itself." 119. What does this mean?… (mer)